A lot of sci-fi used to have a rather superficial or even stupid - look at say Buck Rogers, and there was quite a lot of crap like that in the 70's and 80's. Even more serious shows were rather cheesy. Cartoons always had the damned cute animal or funny robot. Those of us old enough to remember those days reacted against them. Never again !

That's not to say humour hasn't its place - as said earlier, the X Files and Stargate handled it quite well. It's just that the humour shouldn't be aimed at 6 year olds...

Battlestar Galactica is the exception here, not the rule (and even it had more humor than its reputation for bleakness). I don't think the charge that sf in the 1990s and 2000 has much merit.

Consider Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, Farscape, Futurama, Red Dwarf, etc. Even The X-Files, for all its conspiracies, tragedy, and dark cinematography had plenty of humor, featuring comedic characters like the Lone Gunmen on a regular basis and frequently producing entirely comedic hours.

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Basically this, and that's not even counting Firefly. At most I think you could say that post-1980s there are more examples of sci-fi TV that took itself more seriously - shows that could and did have humour, but treated their sci-fi trappings as seriously or almost as seriously as non-genre dramas took theirs. So camp of the kind that say Lost in Space engaged in has been less common.

Re: Charlie Jade, Sindatur
One of the very first lines of dialogue spoken in Charlie Jade is a joke about ball-size. I think one can rest their case there.

But, yeah, I agree, if you go overboard on the "Realism" and "Grittiness" to where you actively prevent all humor or fun or hope for seasons at a time it becomes very heavy. I think this does become unrealistic, because even in War, soldiers play soccer, throw frisbees, play cards at times.

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Not to mention "stopping at casino planets". Which is a complaint I will never understand.

Of course one thing to consider about the original BSG is that in hindsight, it is possible all those human colonies they came across are lifeless world, well deviod of human life. After all If I were the cylons I would exterminate these primative human worlds lest they reach a level at which they could pose a thread.

I don't know what the OP is talking about either. Today's biggest sci-fi franchise, the Bayformers movies, are just filled with levity.

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Just becaquse a movie is a joke, doesn't mean it's filled with levity

I think some shows, like nu-BSG ... they just FEEL humorless.or pace of it, makes it seem like there isn't any. Certainly in my life, i feel like most people do make jokes. Some more than others, but it seems like everyone makes a joke at least once in a while.

Serious shows, like The Walking Dead, seem to put out their humor at appropriate times, or jokes that make sense with the characters (like racist ones with Darryl & Merle).

But if the characters don't seem to laugh/make jokes once in a while, it seems unnatutral and people notice their absence. Kinda like the seemingly lack of toilets on the Enterprise.

I remember the original thinking behind having humour so prominent in SG-1 was because much of sci-fi was so humourless and took itself too seriously. And then Stargate eventually goes down this path anyway with SGU.

Ironically, though it's often called the darkest Trek series, DS9 probably had some of the funniest jokes in the entire Trek franchise.

Not to mention "stopping at casino planets". Which is a complaint I will never understand.

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I only barely remember that episode of the original BSG, but mostly it was just really, really cheesy and stupid. It's an excellent example though of camp, which is the sort of humour largely eschewed by modern genre TV.

The remake tried to really go through the wringer of looking at how genocide of the human race would affect the handful of survivors, while the original show's characters were frankly a little too chipper about the whole thing. One could argue that the new series went too far in the other direction, but hey, balance, where does one find it.

I haven't followed some of the other genre shows (like Once Upon a Time, Grimm, the vampire shows), so someone can let me know what they think of those...

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Branching out to other genre shows eh? In that case:

Game of Thrones has humour, otherwise known as the vast majority of Peter Dinklage's dialogue (and no wonder he's a fan favourite and also the guy who brought home an Emmy).

American Horror Story is unintentionally hilarious all the time, and it has some intentional jokes too. Although it's always hard to tell how much of that show is in on its own joke - it's certainly a good modern example of camp, if a dark, twisted and hyperbolic sort.

Walking Dead... humour is sporadic at best. It's considerably less funny than that other post-apocalpytic TV series with a Bear McCreary score, largely because the writing feels so much more pedestrian (or undercooked) and it lacks anything quite as amusing as Baltar. There are definitely some actual jokes in there somewhere, but besides Daryl treating a feral creature as dinner none come to mind.

Not to mention "stopping at casino planets". Which is a complaint I will never understand.

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I only barely remember that episode of the original BSG, but mostly it was just really, really cheesy and stupid. It's an excellent example though of camp, which is the sort of humour largely eschewed by modern genre TV.

The remake tried to really go through the wringer of looking at how genocide of the human race would affect the handful of survivors, while the original show's characters were frankly a little too chipper about the whole thing. One could argue that the new series went too far in the other direction, but hey, balance, where does one find it.

I haven't followed some of the other genre shows (like Once Upon a Time, Grimm, the vampire shows), so someone can let me know what they think of those...

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Branching out to other genre shows eh? In that case:

Game of Thrones has humour, otherwise known as the vast majority of Peter Dinklage's dialogue (and no wonder he's a fan favourite and also the guy who brought home an Emmy).

American Horror Story is unintentionally hilarious all the time, and it has some intentional jokes too. Although it's always hard to tell how much of that show is in on its own joke - it's certainly a good modern example of camp, if a dark, twisted and hyperbolic sort.

Walking Dead... humour is sporadic at best. It's considerably less funny than that other post-apocalpytic TV series with a Bear McCreary score, largely because the writing feels so much more pedestrian (or undercooked) and it lacks anything quite as amusing as Baltar. There are definitely some actual jokes in there somewhere, but besides Daryl treating a feral creature as dinner none come to mind.

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The BSG quote is mine, but the one about Grimm is not. Although for the record, I haven't seen those shows listed in that quote either.

As to your comments on the original BSG, why do you guys cling to the false claim that that series was campy? It was not. Just because you don't like it, doesn't make it so. It just means that you don't like it.